By failing to sanction Israel, the EU has confirmed once again its global irrelevance
Submitted by
Marco Carnelos
on
Tue, 04/28/2026 - 08:45
By wilfully ignoring blatant US-Israeli acts of aggression, the EU is facilitating a global regime of impunity that contravenes its founding principles
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas holds a press conference in New York City, 22 September 2025 (Timothy A Clary/AFP)
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Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the global order is endangered by increasing geopolitical chaos.
The US and Europe took a tough stance towards Russia by severing energy supplies, adopting unprecedented sanctions, and providing weapons deliveries and intelligence support to Kyiv’s government.
No western decision-maker considered, or more likely ignored the fact, that by sanctioning Russia, the world’s primary commodities producer, dire consequences for their economies were to be expected.
The 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas, followed by Israel's genocide in Gaza, as well as the conflict’s spin-off in Lebanon, further heightened an already volatile situation.
Finally, the arrival of the second Trump administration in 2025, with its hard position on trade, unprecedented tensions with its European allies on Ukraine and Greenland, and, lately, its joint attack with Israel against Iran, has probably put the last nail in the coffin of the rules-based world order.
One of the most depressing aspects of such geopolitical mayhem was the marginal role of the European Union. Such passivity, bordering on irrelevance, seems inexplicable given certain facts about the bloc's global stature.
The EU is a 500-million-population bloc ruled by mature democracies; it upholds solemn political principles; it is organised in a huge common market with a common currency; it is characterised by high living standards; and it is governed by highly developed trade and regulatory powers. In other words, it is a global actor that nobody can afford to ignore.
Hollow words
In her statement delivered on 13 April to a UN Security Council special session on the cooperation between the EU and the UN, the Brussels' foreign and security policy chief Kaja Kallas emphasised that EU institutions and its member states provide 42 percent of official global development assistance, despite making up only five percent of the global population. She also claimed that EU members finance a quarter of the whole UN’s regular budget.
Overall, this is significant soft power. Sadly, the EU has not been able to properly leverage it on the world stage to promote its views and push for political solutions that favour its own interests.
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It mobilised against Russia, but it preferred to adjust, or worse, to flatten itself to the brutal and unauthorised use of military force carried out by the US and Israel, separately and jointly.
In contradiction to the principles it has adhered to since it was born in the 1950s, the EU has effectively resigned to an international system in which politics and diplomacy have been eclipsed by the use of force.
This is an incomprehensible attitude considering the dire economic consequences that these two major conflicts are imposing on the European economy.
The explanation for this attitude becomes immediately clear by listening to Kallas’ speech.
Her opening remarks correctly emphasised that “Today we are witnessing the gravest violation and breakdown of international law since the Second World War…” through “... two pre-eminent global crises - Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the war in the Middle East.”
Her semantic choice, however, betrays her poor judgement of the situation and, above all, her die-hard double standard. On Ukraine, Russia is identified as the aggressor guilty of breaking international law, but on the Middle East, Kallas remained vague, merely mentioning a war without attributing responsibility for it.
Kallas recognised that "together, the crises in Europe and the Middle East represent the clearest sign yet of an abandonment of the old rules, including the UN Charter. A new world… characterised by competition and coercive power politics; a world order dominated by a handful of military powers who aim to establish spheres of influence."
However, once again, she fails to mention these handful of military powers by name.
Then, she overambitiously claimed that "Europe can be part of the solution … when countries seek reliable, principled partners to bolster alliances, defend international law, and move multilateralism forward, increasingly they turn to the European Union."
After having raised attention to the fact that “international law sets legal parameters for the use of force by states… only for self-defence, or with a mandate from the Security Council. Rules are being broken today with impunity”, she omits any reference to two indisputable facts: i) the actions that the US and Israel are taking on the global stage are not authorised by any mandate of the UN Security Council; ii) both countries shielded themselves behind a highly questionable interpretation of the right of self-defence articulated by Article 51 of the UN Charter.
Appeal for accountability
Kallas also invoked "the need for accountability", explaining the EU's effort in "helping set up a tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine".
Of course, not for a minute did she touch upon the fact that her appeal for accountability, in the case of Russia, should also have included the war crimes committed by the US and Israel.
A final measure of how dystopic and ripe of double standards the EU High Representative speech was … she mentioned Russia 11 times and Iran just once, while the US and Israel were never quoted
Not to mention the refusal of many EU countries that are parties to the International Criminal Court - but which have refused to implement the arrest warrant pending against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
To give a final measure of how dystopic and ripe with double standards the speech from the EU high representative was, it is enough to notice that she mentioned Russia 11 times and Iran just once, while the US and Israel were never mentioned.
As the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, remarked: "Her [Kallas’] unwillingness, her deliberate failure, to mention the two actors (in addition to Russia) responsible for the greatest violations of international law, is not just cowardly. It is criminal.
"It explains the repeated violations of international law, the breakdown of the UN Charter, the global regime of impunity.”
And, it might be added, it also explains the absolute lack of credibility of the EU’s ambition – in Kallas’ own words - "to be part of the solution” to the major global crises.
Disgraceful choice
Just to put the final cherry on the cake of the perverse situation pervading EU institutions and its member states, it is worth remarking that on 21 April, the EU foreign ministers who had gathered in Luxembourg failed to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement as a measure to meaningfully sanction Israel’s violence in the occupied Palestinian territories and beyond.
It was a disgraceful dereliction that ignored the pleas of more than one million EU citizens and the request made by 350 former diplomats, 60 NGOs and a UN special rapporteur.
The suspension of the agreement would have represented a strong element of pressure against Israel’s behaviour, considering the EU is its main trading partner.
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In failing to adopt the decision, the EU foreign ministers also ran up against their own vocally proclaimed principles of defending human rights. The agreement, like other deals with third countries, includes a clause, Article 2, which stipulates that “cooperation is based on respect for human rights and democratic principles”.
Spain, Slovenia, and Ireland had pushed for the measure in a joint letter addressed to the EU high representative, but Germany, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic were against it.
As EU insider, Eldar Mamedov, wisely remarked: “The [EU’s] hypocrisy could not be starker. The same European capitals that rushed to sanction Russia within days of its invasion of Ukraine have now spent years finding excuses not to act against Israel… The message the EU is sending is unmistakable: some violations are intolerable; others are merely unfortunate.”
Decades ago, then Israeli foreign minister, Abba Eban, coined a motto to describe Palestinians’ attitude to dialogue: “They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity [to agree to a deal]”.
The same motto can now be revitalised concerning the EU institutions’ and most of its member states’ Middle East policy: "They never miss an opportunity to miss the opportunity…to present a credible and coherent foreign policy, free from hypocrisy and double standards, and upholding their own principles."
Europe has just written another sad page of its incredible irrelevance on the global stage.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
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